Every time I read her books, I'm struck by the beauty of her prose, her sneaky geek references ("an Alderan diorama". Come on.), and the depth of feeling I'm left with for her characters. I remember them and their stories, and I recommend them to friends because they are so full of love and madness and everything that could possibly remind me how much I believe in love.
Of course, every time I read her books, I'm often struck with a strange stirring of jealousy because her stories are so beautiful and they make you feel so damn much and if you're not in tears during at least part of it, you're not paying attention. And oh, how I want to write like she does, to evoke that sort of feeling in my readers on the first and second and fifth read through.
There's a reason I'm glad I'm not actually composing much for "Scandalous" right now. Mostly, I find that if I submerge myself in too much of an author's works for too long, my writing becomes a mimicry of theirs. But right now, I sort of... need to get my confidence back in my own writing style. I'll never write like she does, and that's okay, because I write like I write, and that should be enough for me. It just takes me a while to get back into the right head-space on that one.
Speaking of "Scandalous", I'm up to 23,335 words typed now. All I'm trying to do currently is get their story worked out. There's a lot of editing to be done, strengthening my writing and removing bits and adding bits and basically, it's gonna be Frankenstein's monster when I'm through, but that's okay, too. Because I want this to be the best possible story I could tell, not just something slammed on a page. That's the most important part: that I make it the best possible story it can be for anyone that may read it.
I've still got a lot of work to do, but that's okay. I just want to do this right.
See you on the flip side!
Lulu